Costa Rica

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

VeganMania 2014!

I’m sorry
for the delay in an update. We finally
went on our vacation to both Ecuador and Peru in September and it was a
blast! I enjoyed myself a lot more than
I was expecting despite a few bumps in the road along the way. I shall be updating about the food and
sights in another entry but I’m still in the process of editing my nearly 4,000
photos that I took while there. A bit
overboard? Perhaps, but when everything
I saw was amazing it’s hard not to take a photograph.

Just a few of the vendors

Today, I
figured I’d update about this year’s 6th annual VeganMania that was
held on the 11th. It was our
4th time going to the event and the 3rd time since they
moved the event to the Broadway Armory.
I always look forward to the event for a number of reasons.

I quite enjoy the speakers that
they have each year. There’s always a
broad spectrum of speakers – someone for everyone to listen to. My wife knows more about the ‘famous’ vegans
in the community and even though she tells me about them, without a face or
direct exposure to the people she’s talking about, I have the same blank face
your dog has when you say anything more complex than “sit” or “treat” to
him/her. It never fails that each year
there’s some speaker she knows about and I respond with, “Who was that?” This
is followed by a confused look on her part but that’s because she
doesn’t understand why I couldn’t automatically recall some name she mentioned
six months ago. (I have the memory of a goldfish…) However, after sitting through the talks, I always come away with
new people in the community to appreciate.

This year was no exception. The 1st speaker we caught was
David Robinson Simon, lawyer and author of Meatonomics. My wife has the book but I haven’t been able
to read it just yet – an issue I plan to correct very soon. Surprisingly, I did remember my wife
telling me about the book and the author before we showed up. See?
A broken watch can be right, after all!
Mr. Simon touched upon a few points that he expands on in the book. For example, he talked about how the meat
and dairy industries work with the government in a myriad of ways including
their effective lobbies in Washington.
He also discussed the true cost to taxpayers for that hamburger you buy
at that golden arches burger joint. The
talk was fascinating and despite vaguely knowing the issues addressed in the
talk, it is alarming to hear cold, hard facts coming from someone who obviously
put a lot of work into the research and cares about the topic. I’ll talk about the book in-depth once I
read it. Stay tuned! Needless to say I highly suggest checking
out his book! It will blow your mind.

Left to right: Mariann Sullivan and Jasmin Singer

The next speakers were the
hosts of Our Hen House, Mariann Sullivan and Jasmin Singer. Again, I knew of them thanks to my wife
listening to their podcast. Other than
recognizing the name of their podcast I didn’t really know what to expect. They gave a talk on what struggles a newbie
might have in the world of veganism. It
wasn’t necessarily a topic that concerned me since it’s been awhile since I’ve
been a newbie vegan, but it was quite funny and you could totally feel the
enthusiasm the two had talking to the audience and for sharing their experiences
with veganism. After the talk I told my
wife that there was yet another podcast I would have to start following. Check it out!

Another reason I love VeganMania is
the food, d’uh. Every year I stuff
myself with as much food as I can when I’m there. There are around a dozen or so different restaurants and other
vendors who have dishes for you to try in the food court. And everything looks and smells so good! I try to vary my selection when we get there
but sometimes there are a few favorites we just have to visit. I’ll sometimes try something from the
Chicago Diner or Native Foods Café since I love their food but then I try to
get something from one or two other vendors (at least). This year, I tried some soft serve ice cream
from Temptation, a gyro-like plate with BBQ seitan bits from another vendor, a
salad from Native Foods Café, a raspberry chocolate cupcake from Chicago Diner,
and a few bites from food my wife had, too.
Besides the main food court there were a few businesses set-up through
the main room that were giving away samples of their products. My stomach was quite happy by the end of the
day.

My seitan gyro

My wife's kale burger - so good!

My salad from Native Foods Cafe.

Tofurkey samples, which were so good!

Yet another reason I go is to
refuel my vegan batteries. I’ve said it
before but it’s cool to be around others like you when you’re in a relatively
small minority of the larger population.
Everyone seems to be in a good mood when they’re there and the vibes are
infectious, which, given the current state of the world, I should probably
avoid catching to be on the safe side.
It’s very cool to see vegans, vegetarians, and the veg-curious all come
together in one place.

My swag! Too much?

Lastly, probably my favorite reason
for going is all the vegan merchandise.
My wife and I are suckers for funny and/or in-your-face bumper
stickers. I never thought I would be one
of “those” people when I was younger but I can’t deny that I am. I love watching people in my rearview mirror
as they read the stickers and either shake their head or laugh or take pictures
of their favorite ones. I picked up
just two this year but I think they make good additions. The “eat humans” sticker is from Action for
Animals and the “humane meat” one is from Herbivore. I also like my vegan message shirts that I sometimes get. I’d go broke if I bought everything I wanted
to get while there. I picked up a
t-shirt from Compassion featuring an elephant breaking out of chains with the
caption, “Animals Are Not Property”.
It’s pretty b.a.

All in all, a very fun time! I can’t wait for the next one.

Sorry for the lack of decent
pictures. I was using my phone’s camera
this year and the quality kind of shows.
I’ll step up my game with the next entry! Until then, keep calm and vegan on!

You can not only find Compassion HERE but on Twitter at:
@compassionco